After owning my 99 2.0 for over 6 years I always keep an eye on what the prices are doing, especially the 3.0 litres as one day I would maybe be looking to upgrade. This day would be a while a way as I was never planning to sell the 2.0 and the prices of 3.0 litres only seem to be increasing. Anyway I stumbled across a cheap 2.8 with a starting bid of just £1550, which was a facelift on a W plate with less miles than my current 2.0 and also in titanium silver. I mentioned it to my dad and he told me to go and have a look and maybe it would go fairly cheap and be a decent upgrade. So I went to see it with a view to putting a silly bid in of around £2300 before the auction ended, with no realistic hope of it going that cheap. It was under a cover, absolutely filthy and the owner hadn't really driven it due to health reasons but it all looked straight and he took me out for a spin in it. He opened it with the key and didn't want me to drive it as I wouldn't be covered with fully comprehensive insurance. The roof was mouldy and sealed closed with some horrid rubber patches to stop leaks so he didn't want to open it. It sounded good, ran and pulled well despite the temperature gauge staying pretty low. It had just been through an MOT with 2 advisories on pitted front discs (probably through lack of use), so I thought it's worth a punt and I was going to offer him £2000 as I was there and I had nothing to lose, until he said he would take £1700 for it so I snapped his hand off. Bonus was it's got a hardtop fitting kit which I don't need so that will be sold closer to the winter.

The specs are very basic, standard leather seats (not heated) 16" wheels (4 new tyres), orange lenses etc but almost the same as what my 2.0 started off as. As I hadn't tried the roof it wasn't long into the drive home before it was down and it was fully functional as it should be. Finally arriving back it was straight out with the pressure washer which took most of the mould off the roof and cleaned up the bodywork plus a new battery was fitted into the key, allowing the central locking to work.

A couple of pics next to my 2.0

Mouldy roof

Much better

The whole car needed a really good clean as it looked like it hadn't been done in a long time, so it good a good wash, clay and then I hit it with the DA polisher. This was able to show me if and what defects were on each panel. It polished up quite well.

Mugs wrote:Looks good.
Will this be a project from scratch or swap the parts from the 2.0?

No all of the mods I have done to the 2.0 will be swapped onto the 2.8. It would take me a long time and a lot of money to do it all over again and as I wasn't really looking to buy a new one anyway sp I'm trying to keep the budget down for now, even if hunting out rare parts again would be extremely fun.

So after polishing the car to see what the defects were I decided that I wasn't happy with most of the panels on the car as almost all had some sort of defect. Just looking at the car it is perfectly fine and respectable, despite the passenger door having a dent a few inches long. The rear bumper was coming off anyway to swap it over for the aero one and front one was easier to swap the whole thing over rather than taking off my rieger lip and refit it to the standard bumper. I removed the spare wheel carrier whilst I was there as the wheel was useless and I never carry a spare.

But, I got a bit carried away after that

This gave me a good look underneath the panels for corrosion and I was quite surprised really at how little there was. I cleaned it all up and ground down the rusty parts (front of sills as usual and a little under the filler cap) and treated them with kurust. The bracket at the rear of the car to hold the exhaust in place was also loose so I reattached it with new nuts and bolts.

Then the whole thing was treated with underseal to stop it from rusting in the future. I did underneath every panel that was off and underneath where the front and rear arch liners sit.

I decided I was 100% happy with most of the defects on the car and the panels from the 2.0 were better, even though they are not perfect, so the decision was made to swap the lot. That way I also knew that the colour match would be spot on with both cars

Almost a naked zed, before swapping over the bonnet and doors (the ones that needed 2 pairs of hands!)

I sprayed the arch liners in satin black as a couple of them had some silver overspray on them from a previous repair and also the bumper mesh, number plate holder and fog light blanks plus the front under tray whilst they were off. All the panels are back on now and its finally driveable after a few weeks off the road.

Wheels have been swapped over and next up is the suspension and front brakes (300mm ones off my 2.0 and standard ones will go back on that). Also all of the interior like the seats, steering wheel, roll hoops, centre console, speakers etc. Its going to be a busy week to get it ready for zedfest next Sunday!

Hi mate, didn't think you were still around! I just used satin black paint from Poundland probably need about 5 - 6 cans and they just need a light dusting so it doesn't crack when you put them back on. You can also do the screws whilst they are out. I also did the jacking points just to give them a refresh.

If you sure happen to remove the airbox could you take some photos of the general area. I'm looking at an aFe inlet box but they only just them for the 2.8 and whilst I can't imagine there's any differences I don't want to take the risk!

If you sure happen to remove the airbox could you take some photos of the general area. I'm looking at an aFe inlet box but they only just them for the 2.8 and whilst I can't imagine there's any differences I don't want to take the risk!

Thanks, Chris

Thanks, I've really enjoyed doing it and still have plenty more to do underneath the car. The underseal isn't that tacky I think it depends on the temperature as most panels were dry to touch but when the weather got hotter it was tacky in places. Also I think it depends on how thick you lay it on.

I've already had the airbox off to fit my cone filter I could take some pictures around the area which may help. If I get chance I'll take the filter out to give you a better idea.

Managed to get all the panels back on and ready for zedfest, there's a couple of panels that need a little adjusting as I'm not happy with the shut lines but they can wait for now. As usual, the front of the side skirts suffered the usual corrosion at the fronts as did the bottom of both front wings. They all weren't to bad and would be covered up with the mudflaps anyway so it was out with the drill and wire brush to get rid of the corrosion, treat and then repaint. Colour match was never going to be spot on and it wouldn't need blending in as its covered up so this will be good enough for now until I can do a proper job.

Didn't take too many photos as it was a bit of a rush but do have a few of when they were all back on. Clear rear lights were swapped over as were the fronts with the angel eyes fitted (not in these pics).

Mudflaps were cleaned up and had a light mist of satin black paint, then refitted.

Front number plate holder and sports mesh grill both had a coat of satin black paint, still need to do the fog light blanks.

You can see in the pictures above that the standard exhaust looks lost in the cut out of the aero bumper and as I had just had a new stainless backbox fitted to the 2.0 I looked on realoem to find the part numbers for the whole system were the same. This allowed for the whole section to be swapped over to save cutting and welding it onto the 2.8 and doing the same on the 2.0. Getting the one off the 2.0 was pretty straight forward, unlike the 2.8 where the bolts had rusted and corroded to all different sizes. They needed different sized sockets to be hammered onto them and a lot of force to get them off but we got there in the end. Side by side to show a comparison, the tips on the new one are larger and sit further out so they are flush with the aero bumper.

BBS LM 18" reps back on, look at that arch gap

The coilovers were swapped over from the 2.0 to get it sitting better, these came off fairly well we just needed a bit of heat on the bolts to get them loose on the 2.8.

Got my number plate transferred over and this allowed me to fit the US spec rear plate holder. As it sat all nice and shiny at Zedfest, first time I'd gave it a good drive and I'm very happy with how it drove and the performance over the 2.0 is a massive difference.

Thanks Lee, got the dashboard apart of the 2.0 at the moment tackling the leather. Definitely won't be going to the extremes that you did, I applaud you for going through all that it looks one hell of a job!

Both locks from the boot and drivers door have been swapped over between cars now and the keys for each car all operate the correct locks. The boot was pretty simple, take out the bolts holding it in and the two rods then rotate it 180 degrees and remove. I was dreading the door lock as I thought it was going to be a nightmare and the plan was to just swap the handles over to save messing about getting the locks out of the handle. It actually went pretty well and the only fiddly part was getting the rod on and off the handle from the actuator, which I left to my dad. This did get him away from destroying a door from an E36 with the angle grinder trying to work out how to get the handle off that as he thought it would be the same as the zed, even though I said they were different Well I suppose it kept him entertained.

Handle off

Both handles, chrome cover has been taken off and I have a new one to put back on the handle for the 2.8 so they all match.

Peekaboo

I'll be changing the seals behind the handles at some point but in no rush as I know how easy they are to change now.

Just to keep this upto date, everything from the 2.0 has now been swapped over and the 2.0 been put back to standard and up for sale.

I had upgraded the brakes from the 3.0 (300mm discs) on the 2.0 which were a massive improvement on the originals. These were changed over along with carriers to allow for the bigger discs but were a bit of a nightmare as the carriers bolts on the 2.8 were seized solid. I managed to round a couple of them off, but eventually got them all out after a lot of heat, banging and swearing. The calipers still need to be cleaned up and painted so they match the blue carriers that have been swapped over, but the car now brakes a million times better.

Next up was the interior. The chrome hoops and wind deflector were swapped between the two as well as my ///M centre console, ///M seats, seat lift kit and the matching door cards. These door cards have extended leather across the top so to get it all to match I decided to swap over the dash as well, this also allowed my TFT monitor to be swapped without leaving a hole in the other dash where the wires pass through. I had read about the VIN number needing to be taken off the front part of the dash and believed it needed to be pulled off and re-glued in place but this part of the trim actually unscrews so it was a simple job. Some of the leather on the dash was lifting away so now was the time to try and fix it. The worst part was the speedo cover which was too far gone so I got a new cover and attached this in place. Luckily this pretty straight forward but I wouldn't want to do the rest of the leather cover trim!

Dash out

Leather shrunk and coming away

All stripped ready to repair and front trim ready to be swapped so the VIN numbers are correct

Speedo cover shrunk so much it couldn't be stretched and repaired

New leather cover added and the other part was stretched and re-glued as best as it could be

Heater vents also had some new foam fitted to them to make sure they seal as best as possible

Almost back together

All of the ICE was changed including VIBE Slick front components and tweeters, VIBE Slick rear speakers and slim subwoofer behind the drivers seat.

I had changed the wrap on the ///M console, steering wheel tabs and door trims back in the summer to a brushed aluminium style finish. I haven't really liked it since it went in as it looks plain and it's pretty thin so doesn't cover any defects as well as the carbon wrap did so I'll be changing it all again in the winter. I will probably just go back to silver carbon or may do something completely different.

The wiring for the ///M gauges still need to be connected up but apart from that the interior is all done.

Ever since I bought the car it would never get upto temp and all the symptoms pointed to the thermostat being stuck open. This is what we found when we took it out, the tabs on the housing were broken. The waterpump was also inspected which wasn't broken or that bad.

The thermostat, housing and waterpump were changed whilst the system was empty, we replaced the belt and changed the coolant, bled the system and it now works as it should with plenty of heat coming out the heaters just in time for the winter roof down cruising.

I changed the oil filter, oil and fuel filter a couple of weeks ago and new gearbox and diff fluid went in as I don't know when any of this was last done. All the main service items are upto date now and I'll probably overhaul the brakes again in the winter.

Yep - I used these too - my advise if you are ordering anything is to ask for a little extra at the ends - Im not sure how you found them but some of the cuts were only just long enough - I did give them the feedback at the time though so they might have added an extra inch now?

Got a new mirror from a mini convertible to replace the old one I smashed putting in back together. I didn't have to swap over the circuit boards inside as I don't use the remote locking on the keys, its all done via the alarm fob so it was a simple swap. This one isn't and auto dimming one but the hole is still there for the sensor, which meant a blue 5mm alarm LED fitted perfectly in its place. Hard to get a picture of it, but its very bright and looks OEM. Even though its still big I think it matches the ///M door mirrors nicely.

Winter wheels and hardtop are now on and its in full winter mode, it's even got a winter coat of mud on it to keep it protected.

Didn't please the local rozzers too much though, just got pulled and told to clean the rear plate. Never mentioned about it being miss spaced or shorter than normal which I expected a telling off about but he seemed a good one, even gave me some tissues to clean it.

So just before Christmas I made a 3 hour journey down to Jack Smith Trimmers in Swansea for a new roof. I used the guy in Croydon previously for a blue roof and since then his prices have gone up to just under £400 which was for a black or blue one. This time I wanted something different and decided to go for a red one. Most places want £700 plus for a red roof and I had heard good things about Jack Smith trimmers and he would be able to fit a new red roof for me. All of his reviews were decent although I hadn't seen too many for Z3 roofs so I thought I'd take a chance as he was less then half the price of any others at just £300. He makes them up himself and then fits whilst you wait. He can do a clear or green tinted window just like BMW fit from the factory albeit stitched in and not zipped in. The roofs are made from mohair and the quality is that of OEM and they also have the relief pockets on the rear. It took him around 4 hours to get the old one off and new one on and he cleaned up all the seals before refitting them.

Here's a few pics

There is a slight problem I have at the moment with the way it is fitted as the one side is slightly lower at the rear than the other. You can see this were there is a stitched seam across the rail at the rear (just above the window) where it is not perfectly straight across it where it should be. It is about 1-2cm's out and looks like it needs to be moved forward to sit spot on. He told me to leave it up for a few days to let it stretch and settle in to place but it hasn't really moved which I didn't expect it too but I am waiting for a reply so I might be making a trip back there to get it sorted.

You can see the way it sits slightly lower across the seam on the passenger side.

This is nothing to do with the quality, its just not been fitted 100% but I expect he will sort the problem out for me as he seemed a genuine and honest guy. The usual questions that will come are: Does it have a zipped in window, no. Does it have the relief pockets, yes. Does it still have the headlining fitted (facelift), yes. Will he do different colours, yes. He even said he could make a cream hood but doesn't recommend them due to them becoming discoloured.

Overall I am chuffed with the quality and the way in which the car now has a completely different appearance and I would definitely recommend him if anyone is after a new roof at a great price, despite my fitting issue, but this will be sorted soon I'm sure. For £300 you can't really go that wrong, unless you don't mind wasting an extra £300-£400 for an overpriced fitting fee.

Managed to get a couple of jobs done of my list, hopefully have them all done in a month or two.

Firstly I have re-wrapped the centre console, steering wheel tabs and door card plastic trims with burgundy carbon fibre, as I never liked the brushed steel I used last time and this stuff matches the new roof near enough spot on.

I wasn't sure on how it would look and wasn't that keen whilst I was doing it, but once it was all back together I changed my mind and love the way it looks now.

As the console was out I decided on fitting a push button engine start which is something I have thought of in the past but never found one I like the look off. I spotted this brushed steel one which is engraved and looks pretty smart and matches the handbrake and gear knob so I bought one and got it fitted. The back light comes on with the ignition and you hit the button to start the engine.

Without ignition

With ignition

Installed a couple of new charging points at the rear of the console, normal cigarette lighter socket and dual USB connections

New 1440p dash cam hardwired in which works via WiFi and connects upto my phone so you can view and save all files without removing the memory card and can be rotated for rear viewing also. Hopefully this one will last longer than the previous ones I've had.

Also I have upgraded my 4.3" TFT monitor to a 5" one and put a new front camera in the front bumper for judging parking distances and waiting on a new one for the rear bumper as the old one has given up, again for parking. This comes on automatically with the ignition and switches to the rear camera when selecting reverse.

And finally I decided to do a stud conversion with some neo chrome nuts. This should make wheel changes a lot easier and I don't need to use different sized bolts anymore when I changed from winter to summer wheels and move the spacers around.